Aerials

The weird title to this post suggests my inability to think of one, and also the song that I am listening to. I just had dinner and am on a high from India's spectacular win over Pakistan. What a comeback! I just hope they play as well against SA next week. 

Today was a typical Sunday. A relaxed morning, a sleepy afternoon and a nice evening. I went for my run and was pretty happy with it. I am in love with the weather these days. Nice clear weather with a hint of coolness in the air. 

I bought Batman - Hush, for my Kindle. They have modified (remastered?) the artwork for it and it looks soo cool! With the Kindle store opening in India, it is indeed a sigh of relief for me. I was scared that my Kindle would be useless in India when I bought it in the US.

We have a holiday coming up early next week - Gandhi Jayanthi  and am really looking forward for the break. I still can't believe its October though! This year is going by even faster than the last year. Well, this October promises to be really exciting. On 13-14th, we have the NH7 Weekender headlined by none other than Megadeth! I literally can't wait. Also, for Durga Puja, Turna has invited me for the kickass celebrations at CR Park. Exciting times ahead indeed!

Sunday

I struggled to wake up at 6:00 am for the cricket practice in the morning. I was literally cursing every blink that I had to take to keep my eyes open. However, I got a call from Partha while I was brushing my teeth that today's practice was cancelled due to ppl being tired. Within seconds I jumped back on my bed ignoring my mom's repeated appeals to go for my run instead. I woke up again at 8:30 for the final time. I caught up with Jain and his wife for lunch at Blues in CP and then continued the party at Cafe Morrison in the evening. Overall a fun Sunday. What really made it worthwhile was India thrashing England in today's match. Harbhajan's spectacular comeback made it a one-sided affair. Anyways, all set for Monday?..ehh..maybe not.       

The Struggle

Every morning I struggle to get up early for my run. I keep an alarm for 6:15 and only manage to switch it off and wake up again at 8:45. Its another story that the sleep I get between 6:15 - 8:45 is the best ever! Anyways, tonight is no different. But lets hope tomorrow is a different story. 

Smokehouse Grill

With such a cool name, one would expect it to be a kickass hangout place. Well, we fell into the same trap. It was after office, and we thought we would have a nice evening and mind you, the pics of the place are pretty inviting. We reached there and took our seats and the menu literally put me off! Everything was overpriced, there are no happy hours (they charge bloody 350 Rs for a Budweiser pint!), and the food is more fancy than tasty. Plus there aren't many options to eat too! Its a totally pretentious restaurant, with their fancy seats and complimentary bread baskets. We ordered the grilled chicken and it was soo f*ckin* bland that I "had to" order one more beer. Thankfully my company was good which made my evening worthwhile. We finished off the evening at Giani's - another hyped up place which is average. Humphh!  

Tuesday

Tuesdays are usually hectic in the office and today was no different. I had to collect my car from the garage in the morning and hence had to take the metro till the service station. My skepticism turned to surprise when I found the usually over packed metro to be...well, accommodating....that too at 9 am in the morning. I reached the Sec 15 station at 9:10 or so and took an auto to the service station. As promised, the guy turned up on time and after the usual protocol of paying the bills and checking the car, I started towards office. The day was pretty occupied; but by 8 pm, I thought of catching up with my childhood friend - Harman, who works just next door to me. It had been ages..literally..easily more than a year since I saw him. Its funny...we live 10 minutes apart in Mayur Vihar and here we were, meeting up 10 kms away, at our workplaces. We met up and chatted the night away. I reached back home at 10:15 or so. My brother was back from Mumbai and came over for dinner. We finished up dinner by 11 and here I am, listening to Skyharbour - Chaos: Aphasia. Overall a mixed day. Not too dull..not too exciting..just ...right.   

Super Procrastinator

True to the name of this blog, I have been procrastinating since a long time to write a blog entry; or for that matter, everything I used to do. Hence, I vowed to myself today that I would mend my ways. Although, I have to say, its not the first time. 

I was in a bad mood throughout the day and I was looking for a stress release. The weather outside tempted me to go outdoors for a walk. I got dressed up, created a new playlist on my Ipod and had a drink of water when I thought - Let's make it interesting. I went to Runner's World and chose the Beginner's Training Program. Its a bit embarrassing because I used to follow the Intermediate program and never thought I would need to do the Beginner's. But oh well!, I am used to embarrassing situations and hence it does not matter! Surprisingly my run went pretty well. The first day involved running for 2 miles (1 minute running and 2 minutes walking * 10). Not only did I finished stronger, I shaved 2 minutes of my time. I ran 3 miles in all.  

Anyways, the endorphins are kicking in and I swear I never enjoyed water as much as I did just now!

Ending on a delicious note, we have Chicken Kebabs, Chicken Korma and Romali Rotis for dinner.Not a bad Sunday evening at all! 

The Utopia of a control freak

The idea is to give them a sense of control over you. 

A false sense of control...a pseudo control of sorts.

You let them believe that they have control.  

Every decision they make must be followed, 

but the decision in itself should be yours, 

just coming from them.

You will soon realize that Utopia is inevitable then.
The puppeteer yields control to the puppet to become
the ultimate master of the puppet.
(Master!, Master! *Hetfield voice*) 

The rise of the Indian comics

Comics have been a lifelong obsession for me. My primary aim of buying a Kindle was to have my comics at my finger tips. Reading a comic on a laptop murders the experience and although I best enjoy it in the conventional paper form but the Kindle serves as an interesting second option.

Anyways, the other day, I was lured to the graphic novel section of Flipkart through one of their updates on Facebook.  Browsing through them, I was really surprised when I noticed an Indian comic by the name of Ravanayan in the middle. I automatically sat up to take notice and the excitement was palpable! The reviews were pretty cool and the plot sounded awesome. Its a take on Ramayana but from the perspective of Ravana. I ordered it and got to lay my hands on them last Friday and it was ohh-so-amazing! The artwork and the story is simply mindblowing! I was really surprised by the mature content esp in the artwork that was on display. Immensely impressed, I ordered all the 7 issues and finished them up over the weekend. Created by Vivek Goel and Vijayendra Mohanty of Holy Cow comics, Ravanayan follows the story of Ramayana as a sub plot but it has all these incidents involving Ravana which (most) people (well...at least me) would be unfamiliar with. Needless to say, the kickass violent artwork keeps you hooked to the pages. I literally check the site everyday to see if the next issue is released or not! 

I went back to the same section for more a few days back and was hit by another interesting comic by the name of Odayan. Set in feudalistic Kerala, this martial arts based action story features a vigilante/criminal named Odayan and his saga of crime, violence and blood...lots and lots of it. But sadly it was out of stock and I could not order it. I am dying to get my hands on it I swear!! I mean look at the kickass cover man!! The recommendations on that page however, led me to Comic Jump..a magazine (kind of) compilation of 3 comics - a zombie thriller called The Rabhas Incident, a mythological adventure - Northern Song and a superhero story - Shaurya. I ordered Season 1 and finished 3 issues in one go. I swear its soo damn addictive! Every issue is a continuation of these 3 comics. 

After our Chacha Chaudhary, Indrajaal, Naagraj, Super Commando Dhruv and the likes took the shelf from the Indian comic industry, this re-emergence looks promising and way more edgy in terms of plot, artwork and characters than we are used to..esp from Indian comics. The stories are slick, very well researched and the artwork is beautiful. Plus, we have soo much interesting stuff in our history to write about! Phew! exciting time ahead indeed...I am loving every moment of it! .    

Hitting that sweet spot

Ohh man! Watch out for the riff at 0:18 which sets the song going and the tasty bit at 0:55. Kick ass stuff man! On loop since evening! Such a sweet sweet song - Wolfmother - Keep Moving!

Flyte

I am a big fan of Flipkart. I was introduced to Flipkart when I had to buy Sidin Vadukut's book - Dork. I loved the novel and strangely, it got me hooked to the site as well. I was able to find loads of books, which I could not find in any bookstore near my place. Its another story that the nearest bookstore from my place is 10 kms away!
Anyways, I found it extremely convenient to buy it online and the free shipping on most of the books brought out the shopper in me! Soon, they expanded to games and I suddenly found myself buying games for my Xbox 360. When they announced they would also start a music store called Flyte, it really didn't catch my fancy. I assumed there would be the usual bollywood s*it and your typical Planet M's International collection. 

Anyways, these days,  I was on the look out for Kreator's brand new album - Phantom Antichrist. I searched it on Amazon and found that they were selling it for 25$ including shipping...waay over my budget of ....well, downloading off the net!! It was then, I remembered Flyte and thought to give it a try. To my utter surprise, I found 1 search result for Phantom Antichrist. My eyes hurriedly went towards the price and it was time for the next atom bomb of a surprise!! I was literally picking up my jaws from the floor after that. It was a digital download priced at Rs. 67!! F*cking unbelievable!! I just couldn't believe my eyes! I was pretty sure it was incorrect and I thought one song would be for Rs. 67! But when the transaction was done and the download began, I was sorta sure. And when I blasted my speakers with Civilization Collapse, their first song, I swear I was jumping up and down like a li'l girl!! It has a neat download manager through which you can download songs in a batch. You also get options for 320 kbps, 120 kbps or 64 kbps bitrate for each song. Plus, you can download the same files 4 times. Phew! anyways, it was an awesome surprise on an otherwise dull day. Review for Phantom Antichrist coming up soon! \METAL/    

Randomizing

The Delhi heat seems to be merciless as ever this year. I wake up in sweat every single day. Its 11 pm and 36 C right now!!, probably hotter than most places during the day time! Jeez..and people dont expect me to say these things because I stayed here all my life. 

Anyways, apart from the weather update, I had gone to Kerala for 13 wonderful days! I was going there after 2 long years and needless to say, my relatives were happy to see me (contrary to others beliefs). All 13 days were filled with one yummy feast after the other. I get the taste of prawns and mussels in my mouth just thinking about my trip. The monsoons just reached Kerala the week I was there and it was soo beautiful all around. My body was back here but my mind was still on vacation when I landed here. The Delhi heat, however, sucker punched me back to reality within 2 days. The first thing to be done now is to get my body clock back to the state that it was. I dread waking up in the morning. I have to reset my system back to waking up early and go for my run as soon as I can. I plan to participate in the Noida 10K (yah..you heard it..Noida is becoming hep as we speak baby!) next week. Its a bit ambitious but achievable if I control my urge to procrastinate. Anyways, speaking of early mornings is making me sleepy. I'd better retire for the day.

Running again

Finally, I started running again. Its been a month since I have been doing it. I started slow, not that I have progressed a lot, but yeah at least, the initial shin splits and the lower back pains are slowly giving way to stronger strides and better form. As of now, I do a 3 miler every weekday and a 4 miler on weekends. I cant run the whole distance though. Its a mix of walking and running but surprisingly, my timings have not been bad. I end up covering the same distance in almost the same time this way too. Best of all, I started enjoying it again.

Lets hope I do make it to the Delhi half marathon in November this time.

The Hindi Connection

Being a very proud metalhead, I seldom listen to Hindi songs; no offence, but most of the Hindi stuff that I get to listen to is sheer crap. However, once in a while comes a song which appeals to something primal in me and puts a break on my usual playlist. One such song is Balram from Abhishek Dasgupta. What I like about this song (apart from the groovy song structure..duh!) is firstly, its retro bollywood theme and secondly, the hilariously fun lyrics. The song is about an innocent girl - Irawati, who is about to get her izzat looted by goondas, when Balram comes in to save the day. I just love how the song first describes Irawati's sad plight, cuts to the solo and then erupts with the entrance of Balram. Fun stuff! Its on loop since yesterday night.

Off to Rishikesh

I will be off to Rishikesh for the weekend. Finally a much needed break from work. I was stuck in a rutt for the last few weeks. The stage is set for an awesome trip! There are 10 of us and we would be travelling in a 20 seater bus! Well, there were 19 of us, but 9 of them backed out today! The trip was almost in jeopardy, but since everything was booked, we planned to go ahead anyways (and no, we wont be refunding the money to anyone). 

The plan is to leave around 10:30p so that we reach there early morning (badly hungover...I bet), have breakfast, go for rafting in the afternoon and then leave from there on Sunday, hopefully, after breakfast. I have packed my bags, packed in the booze and loaded the ipod. All set for an awesome weekend \m/ 

Back Home

After an interesting last week in Japan which was filled with suspense and anxiety for the release, I finally departed from Kawasaki at 7:00 am to Shinagawa Prince Hotel. From there, I took the Airport Limousine to Narita and after a sleepy 2 hours, I found myself at the check in counter waiting to get my boarding pass. The pretty Japanese lady at the counter asked me to load up my check in baggage, after which, a not-so-pretty Japanese guy started measuring my bags. The lady in her typical Japanese politeness told me that my baggage was 11 cm over the max limit and I had to pay 150 USD if I wanted check it in!! I was surprised (more like *What The F*ck?!!!* kind of surprised). I almost started to fish out the money, totally confused with what was going on. But good sense prevailed before I gave her the cash (something which lacks in me during critical situations and often the focal point for my dad's angry screams directed towards me). I tried to explain her that I did not face this problem while coming to Japan and asked her whether there was a change of rules in the last 6 weeks?? Now, it was her turn to be confused. She re-checked and realized that she had incorrectly added up the numbers!! Instead of a difference of 11 cm, my bag was ... well... over by 1 cm! And then there was a flurry of apologies from the lady, her boss and even the guy who was measuring my bags! Man! something definitely HAS to happen at the airport when I travel! 

Anyways, with my boarding pass in my hand, I roamed around the airport till boarding time. The flight was excellent. I was traveling in Air India, and there were hardly any people on the plane. I had 2 vacant seats next to me and the lunch was awesome! I spent the entire 8 hours watching 4 movies. and drinking 3 beers (intelligently paced of course). The flight was smooth, but due to the air traffic congestion over Delhi, we circled over Jaipur for almost 40 minutes before finally landing an hour late. My mom and dad came to pick me up at the airport. After a series of traffic jams, thanks to the office rush hour, I reached my home after almost 1.5 hours. Needless to say, it felt awesome to be back. The best part about returning from Japan is that you land in the evening..so there is always time to party the same day you arrive. I had a couple of beers with Dad and caught up with everything that was happening. Over the course of next week, I would have loads of ppl to meet, lots of beers to drink and I am pretty sure I would go crazy over the food. Boy! I cant wait!! 

FujiQ

I am a roller coaster freak! And Japan offers some pretty awesome coasters. The best experience I had here was the Thunder Dolphin at Tokyo Dome City. I remember being sh*t scared during the drop...so much so that I couldn't even let out a tiny yelp..forget about the usual scream. However, this time, when we went to Tokyo Dome, the Thunder Dolphin was closed for maintenance. Then, it was during my welcome party that my boss suggested me to go to FujiQ Highlands - which is THE place for roller coasters. 

Last Tuesday was a holiday for us. So me and Mustafa decided to check out FujiQ. I saw some insane videos of the coasters at FujiQ on youtube and was very excited. I woke up at 7:30 am that day with a heavy hangover thanks to the previous night's pub hopping experience. Its another story that we wanted to hop pubs but ended up staying at the first one for 3 hours and thereby the pub hopping experience ended up being more of a drinking marathon. Anyways, I dragged my body to the shower in the morning and was feeling much much better after my morning cup of coffee! 

FujiQ is situated very near to Mount Fuji. So, going to FujiQ is a lengthy affair. You have to board a train to Shinjuku which takes 40 minutes from Kawasaki. Then you have 2 choices, either go via Bus to FujiQ Highlands or take the train. The bus takes 2 hours but is still faster than the train. Moreover its fun to ride in a bus in Japan and hence it was a pretty easy decision for us. But as soon as we reached the Bus station, the ticket lady told us that we have to wait for an hour since the bus was booked. We thought we would explore Shinjuku till then but as luck would have it, someone cancelled and we were pushed to an earlier slot. We reached there after 1.5 hours or so but the ride was pretty beautiful. FujiQ is very close to Mount Fuji, so the ride was full of empty fields and mountains. As soon as we reached there, we were greeted by the monstrous presence of Fujiyama - one of the awesome roller coaster this park had. Ohh boy..me and Mustafa were giggling like little girls in anticipation to ride Fujiyama. After paying a hefty 4500 Yen for an all day pass, we rushed towards Fujiyama.

Fujiyama

Fujiyama is a no nonsense roller coaster. Its a straight up scary, fast and a quite lengthy roller coaster experience! You start with a 70 m ascent. I swear after 40 m, you start thinking - its enough!..start going down already!! But it takes you to the apex and suddenly the pulley stops and there is a momentary silence when all you hear is the wind blowing. And then *WHAM*..the drop! which just keeps going on and on and on. Usually in most of the roller coasters, after the initial drop, the rest of the ride is pretty ordinary. But not this one! It just goes on and on. It would twist and turn you rather violently. I swear I was clenching my teeth most of the time. When it stops, you find your heart is pounding away, you are breathing heavily than usual and your face is flustered! Not to mention it messes up your hair-do!

Eejiyanaika

While waiting for Fujiyama, we saw this other coaster on which the riders were actually turning upside down on their seats during the ride!! It was insane. Already pretty high with the adrenaline pumping experience of Fujiyama, we rushed towards Eijiyanaika. The wait was very loong. We waited for almost 2 hours but it was sooo worth the time. You flip, you rotate, you turn on your seats while the coaster itself is doing its own thing! Man! this was scarier than Fujiyama because it was very difficult to anticipate what was about to happen. You are kind of suspended from the rails and thrown around like a toy! The best part again is the initial climb but you actually face the opposite side, so you never know how far up you will go till the descent. But when that metal clanking stops, you know the time is up. And boy when it drops, you suddenly flip on your seat and face down with nothing in between you and the earth. Jeez! was it scary. And after that you dont know whats happening. You are upside down, facing up, thrown from the sides...ohh..I had the ride of my life.

Takabisha

Next up, was Takabisha. During the wait, they show you a virtual run of the coaster explaining each segment with a mean background score. The highlight is the 90 degree ascent and the 121 degree free fall! Yes! .. a 121 degree free fall!. There is a bump in the descent which throws you out of your seats during that free fall!!! 

The ride starts with pushing the rider into darkness. Its pitch black and suddenly it drops you into the darkness! You feel as if you are falling straight down to hell! Then after a heartline roll and loads of other thrilling twists and turns, you stop momentarily before you are launched at 100 kmph. And its 0-100 in like 2 seconds! Soon, you find yourself on a vertical lift. You are facing the sky and a bit worried about falling down...but its beautiful. It does not go that high though, but the drop is a seat throwing experience. Its awesome! The total ride lasts 2 minutes and by the end of it..you couldn't have asked for more.

With the huge waiting line in all the rides, unless you go really early, you wont be able to cover everything. Sadly, we missed Dodonpa..which is another coaster worth riding. Ahh..maybe next time. I am pretty sure I would visit FujiQ Highlands every chance I get to come to Japan. 

Scribe - Mark of Teja

I had first seen Scribe in a GIR gig a few years back. Whenever I see them, they turn out to be the most entertaining band of the night, even though I am not a big fan of the genre they play. They have soo much fun on-stage and Vishwesh's quirky voices keeps everyone interested. They are truly a unique band. Mixing bollywood elements with metal is not something which a metal band typically does or something which appeals to the average "Bollywood hating" metal head . But these guys pull it off big time.

Anyways coming back to the review, Scribe hits the mark with this awesome collection of songs. Vishwesh's vocals (voices) are insane and soo are the million guitar riffs on this album. I swear Prashant and Akshay are  riff machines. They belt out one monster riff after the next.
The album starts with a slow instrumental called Seeds but then it gives way to this monstrous opening to RSVP. Vishwesh wastes no time in getting in with his crazy vocals. Each song on this album has some really tasty bits thrown in between; this one has it briefly at 0:50 and then again at 2:34 and 3:24. You have to control yourself from jumping around listening to 'em.
After RSVP comes the uniquely titled - I love you Pav Bhaji. Talk about fun song titles. This one is a rollercoaster. It has insane tight rhythm sections. The riff at 0:46 would get stuck in your head till eternity. The tasty bits are at 1:32 when Vishwesh starts chattering away on how to make Pav Bhaji. Ohh man..its soo awesome and soo damn funny esp. when he ends it with "Butter. Nimbu. Kanda. La!" The riff immediately after that, till the end with the chorus would surely make the crowds go insane!
Up next is Street Archana and Vice Versha, which for me, is the best song in the album. When I heard the insane opening riff, I couldn't help myself humming the tune for the next week. And everyone around was like - "what the f*ck are you humming!?" The chorus is a nice melodic section with very nice clean vocals. The tasty bits are right at the beginning at 0:00. That riff has soo much .. (uhh..how do I put it) ...cha-pow!! (I swear that's all I could come up with after thinking on it for 5 minutes). Oohh and did I mention it has lyrics from Street Fighter? Vishwesh throws in Hadoken and Shoryuken! in between the verses. These guys are crazy!
M Power begins where Street Archana left off. It has these awesome stop start sections, and the song structure is soo beautiful. It has nice mix of melodic as well as these face melting heavy riffs. The tasty bits are at 1:48 where the band goes insane and at 3:03 continuing till the end. Awesome guitars and kick ass drumming.
Up next is a fun, friendly Dum hai toh aage aa! The song is fast and the chorus is fun with the ta-ta-tada in the background! Most of the song is sung with clean vocals...pretty rock and roll! The tasty bit is at 1:28 when the solo starts. Awesome stuff. It also has a nice music video.
After a brief instrumental (which I found irritating) comes the title track Mark of Teja - the Andaz Apna Apna influenced instrumental! I swear when I heard that bit from Andaz Apna Apna (one of my fav movies) at 0:32, I was laughing my as* off! And suddenly the album title made sense to me. Remember those epic lines? - "Main Teja hoon...mark idhar hai!" Ohh man...anyways, this is one of the best instrumentals ever - very heavy, with an awesome, awesome structure (yes...2 awesomes!). It has a million riffs one after the other laced intricately to provide a nice, kind of a progressive "djent" sound. This is again my fav song on the album (what?...a guy cant have 2 favourite songs in an album??!). There are tons of tasty bits starting from the intro at 0:00 to the Andaz Apna Apna tune at 0:32. Further the tastiest bit is at 2:33 and its THE best part. There's another one at 3:03 where they do the extended Andaz Apna Apna thing. Awesome song!
Up next is DemonPra (the song names..I tell you!..I am smiling as I am writing this). Another neck snapping song with almost(?) rap style vocals. Vishwesh's talent of voices comes alive at 1:50. The tasty bit is the riff at 0:38. I just love that riff right there. It would make you jump whenever you listen to it.
Kamla's back starts off slowly before the heavy rhythm section takes over. This song is pretty melodic and has these quiet clean sections thrown in.
"Gunda banneke liye, danger dikhna mangta!"...I swear, thats how the next song, Dracula 1234 starts. I mean, who would not sit up and take notice with that opener. Dracula has all the elements of a Scribe song elevated to the next level...growls, clean bits, quirky voices, marathi/hindi one liners, and one tight monster riff after another (they literally go insane). Its the most fun track in the album. Tasty bits are all the lyrics that was sung by Vishwesh. He should consider dubbing for cartoons with all these awesome voices!
Dont Say  is a slow instrumental...again kinda irritating. It stops the flow and all the fun (strictly my opinion).
Judge Bread has a nice dirty riff providing background to a court hearing. It soon breaks into a groovy section before giving in to some nice meaty rhythm sections. Its a catchy song with nice grooves. A nice way to end the album.

Whew! Mark of Teja has to be one of the best album I heard this year. I cant wait for their next one. It would be a tough task to top this one..that's for sure!                

Promoted

Ohh boy..talk about mixed feelings! Work's in a crisis. Its a full on race to the deadline. And I get this mail about my unexepected midterm promotion! From now on, I am an Associate Project Manager. Sounds fancy but the job more or less remains the same - रगड़ते रहो! 

Damp Week

Oh boy! It never stopped raining since the last weekend! There was a brief sunny afternoon on Wednesday but other than that, the rain has been a major damper. And the cold winds are making it worse. Its 2:00 pm now and its like 5 degrees outside! The worst part is that the forecast for the next week is no different. 

Anyways, I had my welcome party here on Thursday night. We went to this tempura place in Musashi Mizonokuchi called Tempura Tsunahachi. It was fun. We hung out, had a couple of beers and tried various tempuras..including an unbelievable Ice cream Tempura! How did they manage to deep fry something which had ice cream inside it, is a mystery. I also tried raw squid...something which is surprisingly not as bad as it sounds. People who like fish..I mean like who *really* like that fishy smell would be able to handle it. And hey!..it goes very well with beer! Anyways, it was a different experience but real fun!

Well apart from that, the week was a dull one. The weekend would also most probably be an uneventful one with the rain messing up all our plans! :'(

Randomizing

Its Saturday morning again. We had thought of going to Odaiba but decided against it. Both me and Mustafa have to catch up with work. Its been a difficult week. Shifting release deadlines is a b*tch! Worst of all, its embarrassing. Bah!..lets not talk about work! 

It snowed on Wednesday! It was soo cool. I got up on Wednesday morning and it was very dark and cloudy. By the time I finished making breakfast and was enjoying my morning coffee (the one good thing during weekdays!), I saw an update on Facebook about "heavy snowfall in Tokyo". I rushed to my window just to find ...."heavy snowfall in Tokyo" indeed!!! It was really awesome. The train ride to office in the snow was soo beautiful and magical! It snowed for 5 hours straight ... almost till the evening. But to our surprise, by the time we reached Kawasaki, it was spic and span again! There was no sign of snow on the streets or the roads. In fact the snow was neatly wrapped around the base of the trees and lined along with the flowers on the street landscaping! I swear, Japanese are awesome in this. I love the integrity with which they do things! If a receipt gets torn off abruptly at one end, these guys take a scissor and cut the edges to make it symmetrical! 

Anyways,  its bright and sunny now. Probably I will go around for a walk in the evening. Nothing much to do over the weekend. Mustafa is going off with his mysterious friends tomorrow. I bet its his girlfriend...he's not telling me clearly who, what, where, why he's going! So that just leaves me here. But I'd also rather venture out on my own rather than spend time locked in the apartment. I just hope the weather is fine. 

Lastly, check this out. I was there...and right now I'm feeling soooo nostalgic *sigh*!

A Teppenyaki Evening

Japan has a rich culture especially in the way they cook. Yesterday, me and Mustafa had a chance to go out on a Friday night to have that quintessential Japanese Friday night experience. We were accompanied by our boss here - Imoto san, and he did not disappoint us at all. Mustafa was raving about a Japanese BBQ restaurant which serves you very thinly sliced raw meats and you yourself grill and eat it, but, Imoto san promised us something better. And I was a bit surprised...what could be better than raw meat on a smoky grill and beer!!? -  But anyways, we reached Kawasaki station and headed towards the restaurant floor. I had never been there all this time and was surprised seeing the plethora of choices that we had!! We went into this restaurant called Pasutakon (I hope that's how they spell it in English) which was a Teppanyaki  restaurant. They served Okonomiyaki - my favourite Japanese dish. I had a feeling that Imoto san would make us try those. That's something that every Japanese would like to show off to a person from another country! I had it waay back in 2009, and absolutely loved it. In a Teppanyanki restaurant, every table has this hot steel plate in the middle where the waiter/chef actually cooks your meal in front of you. Of course its only possible in Japanese cuisine where 10 mins of heat is enough to cook meat!. Anyways, so, we placed the order for the food and the drinks and were soon engrossed with the way the waitress (very pretty mind you) was mixing all the ingredients and putting it on the hot plate with her oh-so-pretty hands. We started off with 2 okonomiyakis and 1 cheese yaki soba with beef. And I swear, the awesome smell emanating from the grill was mouth watering. Plus the shochu and the beers also kicked in making the evening worthwhile! We talked, laughed, shared experiences and soaked up the awesome atmosphere. The way the grill smokes, the awesome smell of the food sizzling away and the heat around the table (and *ahem* *ahem* beer)...makes it fun! We had a pretty good time and promised ourselves to be back soon...pretty soon. 

Garden Hills

We checked out from the hotel yesterday and heaved all our luggage (and saved 700 yens :D in the process) to our monthly mansion - Garden Hills. And boy was it a good work out for my shoulders! Anyways, I had lived in Garden Hills back in 2008 for about 3 months before moving into a fancy UR. I have fond memories of this place. This was where I made loads of new friends, drunk a lot and learnt to cook. Its also in a very shady part of Kawasaki which is surrounded by "massage" parlors and "clubs". As expected in any cheap (read as 65,000 JPY/month) Japanese monthly mansion, the rooms are really tiny with exactly the amount space that is required..not a square inch extra.

After moving in and unpacking, we went in search for groceries (and beer). I was disappointed we dint find Kirin..but I was surprised, they had Grolsch! We bought a 6 pack and after some more heavily lifting - groceries, this time, we reached and promptly started dinner. The menu was Sambar, Rice and a very over ambitious Shrimp Fry. It was over ambitious because Mustafa was grossed out when I was peeling off the shell of the shrimps with my hands and pulling out its tiny legs. He straightaway raised doubts about his intentions of eating it and also deemed me a sadist. Well, he just dint get why I smiled when I was peeling off the shells. On second thoughts, he does have a point. Anyways, the sambar was made, the rice was cooked and the shrimps were fried and everything came out excellent. The beer too was sadly finished and there was no choice but to retire for the night and do everything all over again the next day.  

Yokoso Japan

I finally landed in Japan after a very sleepless 8 hr long flight. I just couldn't find that sweet spot on the seat. And just when I was about to doze off, the airline guys served us breakfast. After a 3 hour long ride from the airport, we reached our hotel. I was instantly hit with nostalgia when I saw the room. I swear, only the Japanese know how to optimize for space. Its such a tiny room with every possible amenity you can imagine! After a quick freshen up, we went for lunch to Tandoori - the closest Indian restaurant. We brought a bottle of JD on our way back and promptly finished 2 pegs after lunch. Me and Mustafa caught up with some much needed siesta after that and woke up at 7 pm! We have a big meeting tomorrow and we were preparing for it till bout 3 am. Well, its now 3:30 am, but still no sign of sleep. I'm whiling away my time replying to emails, checking out Scribe videos on youtube and well...filling up this blog. I'm a bit worried bout getting up early with so li'l sleep! 

DIE Dhoni Haters DIE!!!

What an awesome match it was today! It totally made my Sunday worthwhile. I only saw bits of India's bowling because I had to prepare for my trip ... but I saw the entire Indian batting innings. It was going on fine before things got a bit difficult with Rohit Sharma getting out, followed by Gambhir. But as long as Dhoni and Raina were there I was hopeful. But when Raina got out and Jadeja soon followed trying to go for a six, I thought it was over. Dhoni wasn't his usual self...I felt he was waiting for something. He was only interested in taking singles...as if procrastinating that much needed boundary or a sixer. It was 13 runs to win in the last over and Ashwin missed the first ball. He connected the next ball and where there was an easy 2, Dhoni raised his hands and said No. I was pretty impressed with his confidence. With 12 to go from 4 balls, I got this feeling that something is gonna happen soon. I could just feel it. And true to my feelings..the next  ball was dispatched in style for a HUGE six. It was awesome! It was the biggest six of the match. The next ball was a full toss and was heaved towards the leg side. I thought it was a six and the game was over..but Warner caught it. My heart sank...but then the umpire called it a no ball and trust me..I was jumping on my seat with excitement. Whew!..man! With 3 more to go from 3 balls, Dhoni again heaved it on the leg side for 3 runs and ultimately the match.

It was awesome the way Dhoni batted today. I envy his supreme confidence and how he pulls off his cockiness. But I was sad the way some ppl react on his achievements. E.g. today someone said on Facebook.."He knows EXACTLY how to be a hero, just when he could done the same thing, a much easier way. Plays like a pussy 99% of the time, and just grows balls at the last moment." I mean cmon!!! How cynical can one be?! This guy rescues the team from another embarrassment..and he is being criticized for pulling off the win from the jaws of defeat. That's whats wrong with Indian cricket (sports) fans. But then, Dhoni doesn't care...he goes along and does it once again and shuts everyone up! These cynical fans actually believe Dhoni does it on purpose!!! Imagine!...he first gets his team into a difficult position.....and then purposefully snatches victory to become a hero! Wow!..can't you even see the twisted logic in that sentence and how ridiculous it sounds?! Well whatever..all you haters can at least agree on this..lets say even if he does this...at least he has the balls to pull such a thing off! 

Off to Japan

My hectic schedule would be getting even more hectic. I'll be travelling to Japan on Tuesday for about 1.5 months. But I'm looking forward to it. Most probably I would stay in Kawasaki like the last time. Well, there is a question mark on the availability of the monthly mansion in which I used to stay. Let's see..I dont mind trying out a new place too. Anyways, I'll be going with my friend Mustafa this time...so company is not a problem. Well ... there are always like 10 other ppl from the office in Tokyo at any time of the year ... so getting bored and lonely is a bit unlikely. Also, Japan is a fun place to be at with friends. Looking forward to drinking Kirin Beer and the awesome nightlife. I hope I dont screw up my project :) All the best to me!

Missing the Opeth concert

Ohh man..I am soo concert starved :( . The last concert that I went to was the GIR in 2010! It was epic...there was Meshuggah! But ever since, I couldn't attend any...not even to a pub rock fest. I came to know about the Opeth concert a few weeks back, but work prevented me to even look up the details. Hell..I wasn't even sure if I would get this weekend off. 

Anyways, as I'm writing this post, Opeth is headling the Summer Storm festival in Bangalore. To console myself, I've been listening to Opeth song's over and over from the morning. But that is just making me sadder. I also wanted to check out Nothnegal which has one of my favourite drummers - Kevin Talley of Daath. Arrrghh!!!! *sigh* *sulk* ...  *more sulk* :'(  

My hatred for fruit

Anyone who knows me well knows that I HATE fruit. Everyone asks me why ... but I just dont know why I dislike fruits soo much. I dont like any of 'em. Even if you cover them up in ice-cream, I wont eat. In fact I would rather not eat that ice-cream itself! But today, I guess I know why. I was watching a Seinfeld re-run and it was that episode where Kramer gets these cantaloupes and makes everyone taste them. But everyone is reluctant to taste at first, uncertain whether its actually good or not! And bam!!!...that was the moment of revelation for me! It was the uncertainty in the situation which makes me dislike fruits. You never know whether it would taste sweet or not. It can look amazing...yet it can be sour or whatever! And that makes me not wanna eat them. Cool!..TV can be such an enriching experience.

Work

Work is not about fun...

its about work. 

Its about how much crap 

you can take 

from the boss-man.....

and then go ahead and 

take some more!

                                                                                         ~ Red Foreman (That 70's Show)

TV Nostalgia

I used to be (still am?) suckers for TV when I was a kid. My parents used the term TV Mania often in their conversations with other parents during their "look-how-spoilt-is-my-kid" conversations. Anyways, the other day, I saw this ad for Comedy Central coming to India. Needless to say, I was excited. I used to watch this channel when I was in the US and it was fun! Since today was a holiday, I got a chance to check it out. Well, it doesn't have many new shows as yet but yeah..they have a pretty cool collection of re-runs :D. I caught up with The Wonder Years after sooooo long! And it was soo much fun. I used to watch it when I was in school and simply adored it. It got me reminiscing about the good times! Then there was That 70's Show and Kumar's at Number 42 both of which I used to watch. All I need more are the Saturday Morning cartoons! I could die for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or GI JOE or Drack Pack!!!...ohh man! how I used to love those Saturday mornings!! *sigh*

The Dilemma

I've been having one rough week after the next these days. However, thanks to Republic Day, I was forced to leave home early relatively early (read: 10 pm) yesterday and stay home today. I realized yesterday after 2 pegs of Old Monk with Dad how much I needed this holiday. Its funny how alcohol induces such crisp revelations. But soon after, I was faced with this dilemma of sorts. Should I hit the sack early and get some much needed sleep or do I catch up with everything that I had missed during the week?  

Crazy Night

We had the CMMI L3 final findings on Friday. Something which we were anxiously waiting for! I swear the entire process was nerve wracking. I actually had dreams of my interview, the day before my actual interview. The last time such a thing happened was before an exam in college. Psshhh!..after the 2 hour one-on-8 interview and the endless cycle of finding and showing documentary evidences for various process areas, it finally came down to this moment. When the Lead Appraiser showed the Ratings  slide and everything there was in Green...I heaved a deep sigh of relief! Thankfully, we got the certification! It was an awesome moment indeed. Needless to say, there were a lotta reasons to party. Firstly the certification, plus it was also my friend Mustafa's b'day and to top it all...it was friday....so we just *had* to celebrate. We headed towards EOD for some bowling action and then to Superstars to drink away the night. We stayed up there till 12:30 or so...long after the bar closed. 

I had to drop a few ppl off in Noida after that. We started from Sec. 18, went to New Ashok Nagar, Sec. 52, Sec. 29 and finally Sec. 55. On the way, one of my friends (who was dropped the last) dozed off..and boy did he doze off! I reached his place and he just wouldn't wake up. I screamed out his name..shook him..even gave him a slap or two! (the first one was to wake him up..the second one was just for kicks :D ). But he would just open up his eyes for a sec and close 'em again. Poor guy..the alcohol must have really kicked in! I took out his phone and called his roomies. One had his phone switched off and the other was out someplace else. I decided to drop him off at one of my friend's place. Thankfully he picked up his phone. He told me to come to C-19 Sec. 20. From Sec. 55, I reached Sec. 20 to find almost every gate closed. I finally found an entry after roaming about a bit; but it was the A block. After randomly driving in and out I figured out where C-19 was. I called my other friend and told him that I was outside C-19. That's when he told me that it was NOT C-19 but E-19!! E-for-elephant! (I  still remember this line). F***Ck!! I swear I was sooo pissed at myself! Nevertheless, after circling around a bit more, I saw a guy waiting on the road...and it was indeed him. We finally got my friend out of the car and carried him to his place. It was 2:00 am by that time and the Delhi winter cold had really kicked in! It was finally time for me to drive back home...and sadly I was fully sober after the ordeal. I was praying for zero cops on the way. Thankfully, I reached back in less than 10 minutes thanks to the empty roads and DevilDriver blaring out of my speakers. Jeez..talk about having an eventful evening!

The Routine

My life's in a rutt. It starts at 9:00 am when I frantically get up and check my office mails to see if I have something important to be done right away. There's this CMMI SCAMPI A appraisal going on where my project is a Category 1 project. To make matters worse, my role is of a Project Manager. I had my interview last Friday and ever since, I get some mail or the other, at any frickin' time of the day to validate some "finding" through an "evidence". Needless to say its something which has to be done/sent right away. So my day is usually spent suddenly switching gears between my usual work and anxiously going though all my project artifacts, desperately trying to prove that we are indeed doing the things the way they are supposed to be.

Apart from all that, my project is also in a very critical-now-or-never stage. Its literally a war going on. Its one of the most hectic times I have faced. These days, I come back at like 3 or 4 in the morning almost everyday. Mom screamed at me the other day when I spent the entire night at the office and came back at midnight the next (to next?) day. But I cant help it. 

I finally came back at 8:30 today after an important release yesterday. Dad was super surprised when he opened the door.....so much soo that we ended up celebrating with 2 patiala pegs of Honeybee! :) 

Aaaah..this too shall pass...soon enough I hope!

  

TGIF

Phew!..its the weekend finally! I had one of the most hectic week of my life! I had the CMMI interview and a project release in the same week. Needless to say, I got very little sleep.  Since last Thursday, I stayed up late ... in fact till early morning every day. But at least  now, the CMMI interview is off my back! I can at least focus on my usual activities!

I dont have any specific plans for the weekend but my bro who had gone to Kolkata for a meeting would come back tomorrow. So hopefully there would be drinks! Ohh I soo wanna get drunk this weekend!!

RIP Amit Saigal

Courtesy: RSJ online

Papa Rock is no more. Amit Saigal - the creator of the Indian Rock scene passed away today. Its such a sad day for the Indian Rock Community. I first saw Amit Saigal at my first GIR concert way back in 2002. He used to host the show..call up the bands and stuff. He was the founder of one of India's oldest rock magazine Rock Street Journal. He was instrumental in encouraging Indian Rock bands at a time when such a thing barely existed. He created GIR which is one of the best rock gigs in India. Ohh man..its really sad. He was only 46. He drowned while swimming in a beach in Goa. 

I came back from the office at midnight...already having a f*ckd up day at the office. This was the first news that I stumbled on to. Such a sad day!   

Restart

2011 sucked! Too many bad events marred the year which started out on a promising note with India winning the world cup! That was the only good memory that I can come up with for 2011. The rest of the year, I'd rather forget. It was a year which saw many legends leave us. Personally, I lost 2 of my very close people..one just a week back! Then there were incidents which really happened for no reason at all. To put it in other words, there were incidents which really happened for only one reason - to f*ck me up. By the end, I was just sick of it, I was like - "Cmon what else you got!". That was also one of the reasons I stopped filling up my blog. I don't want to write about things which are sad, because unlike happiness, depressing news becomes even more depressing when we reminisce about them. As they say - its best to leave the past behind (I have no idea who said that). 

It was a fun first day of the year. Although it was without friends and the usual getting-drunk-and-being-silly, it was still fun (wow! I *never* expected myself to say that!) It rained for quite sometime in the evening. Something which was unusual, but it was a perfect metaphor for the new year. It wiped the slate clean again..for a new start. Here's to a very happy 2012 to all of us. Hope it makes up for the sh*t that happened in 2011. As Cosmo Kramer says - "Giddy up!".